If you order the Old School DVD's from the link below, you'll get free shipping and a portion of the order will go back to Muppet Central, helping us keep the site and new projects coming in the future.

Although I don't have the set yet but hope to get it sometime next week, let me be the first to say thank you to you, Phillip, for posting the links and especially to Greg for his excellent review. Even with the edits, this sounds like an awesome set. I hope it sells like hotcakes and that Sesame Workshop will be able to continue putting out more volumes.

I hope, that on a future "Sesame Street" DVD box set, that the cartoon with Tiger writing the word "school" on the blackboard is included. I've been interested in seeing this one again since 1991, the year that my interest in the "Tiger" comic strip was renewed, after reading early episodes on newspaper microfilm. I first recall seeing this animation back in 1973 or 1974, and last seeing it in 1985.

I notice that an animated adaptation of another one of my favorite comic strips, "Beetle Bailey," has been included in the "Old School Volume 1" DVD set. I collected this cartoon back in 1992 when it appeared in episode 2937.

There was also another King Features Syndicate comic strip adaptation that appeared on "Sesame Street." Does anyone remember the cartoon with the Krazy Kat character? The curriculum goal of this one is the word "love." I recall that this animation had strange music, Ignatz throwing a few bricks at Krazy, and a big word "love," probably made out of stone. I also recall some floating hearts.

A lot of the bonus skits mentioned are ones that I haven't heard about. I was wondering if they would mostly be ones that everybody knows about and have been included on many videos, anniversary specials, and whatnot, but a lot of them I don't really know anything about. It feels like a treat finally seeing the original Oscar singing I Love Trash, plus I've Got Two (I've been wondering if those songs were recorded especially for the first album or if they were on the show in the first season). It's also great that I'll finally be able to see the skit where Big Bird met Little Bird and The Monsters Three Wishes. It is a shame that more Kermit skits weren't included, but most of the ones included are ones that I haven't seen, and we pretty much get a little bit of everything from the first five years on the set. We get an almost equal balance of main characters, at least one skit with most of the non-main characters from the first three years, two Grover the Waiter skits, at least one Baker, Jazz, Alice Braitswaith Goodyshoes, Buddy and Jim, Larry and Phyllis, and Mad Painter sketch each, one Super Grover sketch, one Sesame Street News sketch (and another sketch with Kermit as a reporter), and more. I don't think this set will have any Ralph and Wally or country fiddler skits (like Two Toucans Two-Steps), though.

And the press release seemd to have a few errors. As pointed out in the review, it has 54 bonus skits instead of 45 (that's sweet!), and there were press releases that mentioned that the set hs Pinball Number Count and Sing with Bob, but those don't appear to be included. I don't know why these errors were made in the press release (perhaps when the press release was written the DVD producers thought Pinball Number Count was part of the first five years and corrected the mistake before it was released, and maybe the same thing applies to Sing).

It is a bit great that this set does have some skits with non-Sesame Workshop characters, not just Kermit the Frog, but also Batman, Superman, and Beetle Bailey. I kept wondering what wuld have been cut from Noggin, and it seems like most of what Noggin cut wasn't included in other episodes (though some were), and most of these skits don't seem too interesting. I could be wrong and learn that they are better than they sound. I was hoping that Noggin cut some Kermit and Herbert Birdsfoot skits from the episodes included (so we'd have more of them than what we would have known), as well as some Little Jerry and the Monotoens skits, and some more Lefty skits (did Noggin ever show any Lefty segments?). But it stil sounds satisfying.

By the way, regarding the upcomming The Best of The Electric Company Voluem 2, is this set comming out nearly a year after the first release, or is that gap shorter (or longer)? Maybe this can clue us in to how long we'll have to wait for volume two of Sesame Street: Old School.

I guess it's inevitable that the fans who watch and the legal teams who guard these releases will never completely see eye-to-eye, but Sesame Workshop seemed to be incredibly considerate this time. Admitting that the show has grown-up fans, promising something Elmo-free and releasing as much as they can is sure a great effort on their part.

I'd like to believe that if they show this much effort, we will in turn be considerate enough to understand and forgive for the inevitable edits.

Grrrrrrr, I had to order mine through Amazon and then will have to wait for it to be shipped to Australia... the wait is killing me.

Cherry "Can you tell me how to get, how to get this box set faster" Pizza

1. Does this set include any skits where Richard Hunt performs voices?
2. It is mentioend that the season five premier had an animated skit where a man holds one leg in the air, which was cut on Noggin. I know that a similar skit, with Jasper and Julius, was in the season four premier. Are these the same skit?
3. What characters appear in Prairie Dawn's pageant in this set?
4. Does this set have a feature where viewers can preview other Sesame Street DVDs, like on the other Sesame Street DVDs?

It seems like I predicted quite a bit of stuff. For the longest time I figured that the first episode would be included. hen I learned that this set focused on the first five seasons I figured that it would have one episode from each season, with my main guess being that they would all be season premiers (I think many of us predicted the same thing). It would be harder to guess which episodes will be included in volume two (unless we just predict the season premiers from 1974-1979). When it was confirmed that the set would have "complete" episodes and bonus sketches, I predicted that they'd be grouped by season, though I also incorrectly predicted that there'd be an equal number of bonus skits per season (and while I didn't mention this prediction on the forum, I predicted that the closing sequences from each season would be included with the bonus skits after I leanred that each episode was accompanied by clips from each season). I made a few wish lists, and I think that the only bonus skit that I put in any wish list that is included is Bert's Bust (assuming that's the one where Ernie makes a clay sculpture of Bert and runs out of clay for the nose). However, there are a few skits that I hoped would be included, despite not putting them on wish lists. Those skits are Big Bird Meets Little Bird and The Monsters Three Wishes. I also kind of predicted, though I never predicted it out loud on these forums, that Martians Telephone and "A Quart of Milk, a Loaf of Bread, and a Stick of Butter" would be included. I did have some wrong predictions. I predicted and hoped that more bonus Kermit skits would be included, and I was wrong (I had also hoped and predicted that there would be at least one Kermit skit for each season represented, excepting season two).

I was just counting the bonus sketches listed. it was said that it actually has 54 bonus skits, but then I found that this includes the closing credits sequences. Shoudl this count? If not, then there are actually 49 bonus skits and five closing credit sequences.

This is by far the greatest DVD release that Sesame Workshop has given us since they brought out The Electric Company in February. Hopefully we will see more Old School sets come out in the future. All in all, this is the best review I have ever read on the website and I certainly cannot wait for Tuesday.

This is by far the greatest DVD release that Sesame Workshop has given us since they brought out The Electric Company in February. Hopefully we will see more Old School sets come out in the future. All in all, this is the best review I have ever read on the website and I certainly cannot wait for Tuesday.

Click to expand...

Oh, so it was febuary that The Best of the Electric Company Vol. 1 came out, and it appears as if volume 2 will come out in just barely less than a year. Hopefully Old School Vol. 2 will come out in barely less than a year (hopefully next July) or less.

I guess it's inevitable that the fans who watch and the legal teams who guard these releases will never completely see eye-to-eye, but Sesame Workshop seemed to be incredibly considerate this time. Admitting that the show has grown-up fans, promising something Elmo-free and releasing as much as they can is sure a great effort on their part.

Click to expand...

How do you know that the buying fans and the legal teams won't see eye-to-eye? Maybe somebody working on these sets will eventually post information here, perhaps explaining the process, how bonus skits were chosen, and other stuff. Maybe they could also ask us what we want. Back when The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock first season sets were released, the writer of The Muppet Newsflash website managed to get a lot of info from Disney and Hit! regarding these releases. It's too bad that he didn't get more info on this set that wasn't announced in any press releases. But maybe somebody in charge of the box set will become a member of this forum, just like how people who worked for Palisades Toys were members back when the Muppet Show action figures were being produced.

I have just looked at the list of bonus sketches again, and it seems like the non-muppet skits outnumber the muppet skits, 27-24. I thought it looked like there were more non-muppet skits, but didn't think the score was this close.

I have been wondering if future sets will include other season premiers, but then if this is the case then there is a bit of a problem. I believe that the season 12 premier is part one of the five-part episodes where Big Bird goes to camp. It would be weird to just have part one of a five-part episode on a DVD set without the other parts.

Based on the review, this set seems to be just what I expected: a great set overall with some minor disappointments. I'm certainly not happy about the edits, but at least they're relatively minor, plus everything cut from the Noggin airings is intact, and three of the episodes are complete.

There are a sketches on here that I haven't seen which look promising, and the ones I have seen are definitely classic material worth having on DVD. I look forward to seeing the pitch film as well, and major kudos for including the Friday credit rolls among the bonus features (that idea had occured to me, but I didn't think they'd actually do it).

Also, if I'm interpreting the review correctly, I take it that the PBS "P-Heads" logo is seen at the end of all five episodes? That's rather odd to me. I'm guessing that either they used later prints of episodes 1 and 131 (though I thought that the season 1 episodes would have been shelved by the time that logo debuted), or they weren't able to get the rights to use the NET logo. Still, this sure beats a "Sesame Street was originally produced for the Public Broadcasting Service" screen.

In any case, I won't think twice about buying this!

minor muppetz said:

I have been wondering if future sets will include other season premiers, but then if this is the case then there is a bit of a problem. I believe that the season 12 premier is part one of the five-part episodes where Big Bird goes to camp. It would be weird to just have part one of a five-part episode on a DVD set without the other parts.

Click to expand...

I would hope that they'd continue to use this format for future groups of five seasons, but you do bring up a good point. I'd say the most logical solution to this issue (besides issuing all five episodes) would be to include the story scenes from the other four episodes among the bonus features.

EDIT: By the way, I checked Muppet Wiki, and the weeklong "Big Bird at Camp" story took place during the first week of season 14, not 12.

FANTASTIC review! Now I absolutely cannot wait to spend my birthday money on it on Tuesday!!

Oh, and a bit of a word of warning. For those of you planning on purchasing the set at Best Buy, don't even try. I was just there today and they WILL NOT be getting it in on Tuesday, and possibly not at all. But, from what I understand, Target will have it. So I'll be going there on Tuesday.

I am going to purchase my coppy on Thursday. Are you sure that Best Buy is going to have the set? I talked to one of their employees and they said there going to get their set two days later. Anyways, I can try another retailer Supestore.

How do you know that the buying fans and the legal teams won't see eye-to-eye? Maybe somebody working on these sets will eventually post information here...

Click to expand...

I meant, fans will always want to see EVERYTHING

Legalities will never be able to allow EVERYTHING, and that it's inevitable that there will always be something missing. I wasn't suggesting that people would be throwing chairs at each other a la Jerry Springer

It needs to be pointed out that I have found an easter egg on disc 1 consisting of a small little photo galleries with some conceptual drawings and a couple behind the scenes photos. I don't want to spoil anybody's fun in finding it though